Frontier Communications says it will start implementing service caps in about six months. It has gained notoriety for having, at 5 GB per month, the smallest cap proposed so far, but according to spokeswoman Stephanie Beasly, the ISP hasn’t been enforcing it yet. It’s trying to develop a broadband meter and figure out the right service packages to offer subscribers. “Our goal is education, so people can see what it really costs to download a movie or watch something on YouTube,” she told me.

This isn’t unreasonable on the face of it, but we have two issues with consumption-based pricing. The first is carriers need to upgrade their networks to remain competitive, and as they do the actual costs per bit drops, meaning it’s cheaper to send traffic over the network. The second is that such pricing schemes will slow innovation on the web by forcing consumers to pay for their data consumption — much in the way people once had to ration their cell-phone minutes. And that means services such as those offered by Slingbox or Hulu will end up costing consumers more. In order to give a sense of what your broadband future looks like, below we offer a chart to show that all caps are not created equal.

Comcast

Time Warner Cable

Charter

AT&T

Frontier Communications

Cap Details (largest)

250 GB per month

Currently 40 GB per month with plans for higher tiers

no cap for 60 Mbps service

150 GB per month

5 GB per month (however, Frontier says it is not currently implementing caps, and will develop a range from based on average usage for the area)